What defines a company as a microstock photography company is that they (1) source their images almost exclusively via the Internet, (2) do so from a wider range of photographers than the traditional stock agencies (including a willingness to accept images from "amateurs" and hobbyists), and (3) sell their images at a very low rate (from US$0.20 to $10 in the US) for a royalty-free (RF) image.

Based on this alone, they do not fit the criteria of a micro. Your first comment was right. Micro sales.

Well there's 20m RF images on Pond5 and 13m of them are available for $10 or less. So 2.65 out of 3 would make it close enough!

That's the choice of the artist, not Pond 5. But I will agree that since most are uploading micro images they are pricing them similarly, thus creating a framework for micro-aligned assets on a "price it yourself" site.

At Pond5 you can set your own prices, as long as they conform to some standard that they have determined. They want to remain "artist-friendly" by allowing you to set your own prices, but not so friendly that they really support the option to set your own prices.

Fixed pricing or artist-adjustable pricing. Pick one, Pond5. I don't even care which way you go, but giving people grief for using the pricing features you built into your system is dumb.

If it's that big of a problem for you, set fixed prices and be done with it.

At Pond5 you can set your own prices, as long as they conform to some standard that they have determined. They want to remain "artist-friendly" by allowing you to set your own prices, but not so friendly that they really support the option to set your own prices.

Fixed pricing or artist-adjustable pricing. Pick one, Pond5. I don't even care which way you go, but giving people grief for using the pricing features you built into your system is dumb.

If it's that big of a problem for you, set fixed prices and be done with it.

Not dumb at all. Pond5 is the most contributor friendly agency that still remains with Stocksy on the stock panorama. Who are really not very clever. are some people that price their assets higher at Pond5 that the established prices at agencies that pay a fraction of the percentage they get at P5. That sir is really DUMB.